5 Bogus Reasons Used to Ban Mosques

Like the United States, Switzerland’s Constitution protects the freedom of religion. However, that fact didn’t prevent a popular vote from adding a sentence that explicitly banned minarets in the country. Minarets are tall prayer towers, a type of architecture specific to Islamic buildings.

Although Swiss officials promised the Muslims in the country the vote was “not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion, or culture,” it was most definitely precisely that. By banning one of the most prominent symbols of Islamic culture for arbitrary reasons, it is a clear declaration that the majority of Swiss people don’t even want any visual reminders of the Islamic faith.

5. To Protect Freedom of Religion, We Must Prevent Freedom of Religion

When wealthy Saudi Arabians offered to fund the construction of a mosque on behalf of Muslims in Norway, Jonas Gahr Store, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, forbid the money from being allocated to his country for that purpose. While Norway does proclaim itself to have freedom of religion, officials stated that it wouldn’t be right to allow people from Saudi Arabia – a country which does not allow residents to practice Christianity – to promote a diversity of religions in Norway when it doesn’t even do so in its homeland.

Of course, two wrongs don’t make a right. The best way for Norway to advocate for religious freedom is not to limit it within its own boundaries out of spite. Why not demonstrate how a nation can benefit from a diversity of cultures rather than exhibiting Islamophobic tendencies?

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156 comments

I assume almost all religions stray into preaching to the masses at sunday mass......I was always blown away by the church of the creator types in hayden lake Idaho in the early 90s.....talk about a shining example of good old American home grown terrorists-neo-Nazis.....what a bunch of whack jobs.....!......religions getting hijacked for hate speech rhetoric is a human time honored and practiced tradition......that we let it happen is a subject for discussion!

Femia C., it seems to me that with all of the hate and intolerance you are spewing about religion in general, you are no different than what you criticize. You want to be free to choose not to be a part of religion, but you don't respect others right to choose to be religious of their own free will. You have written against the religious freedom that has made it possible for you to write against religious freedom. Now that's irony. It is also hypocrisy.

Roopak, Sorry, I merely meant in mosques in the usa, eur-union and countries that want to become members of that union. There are restrictions here and there. But since mosques are not only used as places to gather, there are all kinds of activities, in which women and girls participate. The title of this discussion suggests we are talking about the western world.

But Farther East ... (well, uh, our queen went into a mosque in Saudi Arabia) .. it is as if women are non-existing as human beings. So, no rights at all.
But also there, religions are more about culture than about religion-in-itself.
Religions take from cultures what they need, to "appease" people. Then they turn norms and values into (though) rules and laws to keep their followers under their influence and power.

In a far future, when millions of people have killed each other over bogus reasons, maybe someday, ratio will win. When gods will be proven bogus and acceptance of equal rights will be the norm for all (women, children, gay, disabled, men).

But then again, when I weigh the length of life of earth against human occupation, I put my two cents on the planet.

It is of great value that we can speak out freely here, and I am very aware of that and grateful for that everyday.

But I am not going to follow the bogus reasons to build bogus houses anymore. Although I spent my first four years in a japanese prison camp, haiku is more my thing ;-)

Dear Femia,
In many countries around the world women are not allowed to enter mosques.
My question, therefore, was to get facts and not in any way to to discriminate against women, but rather to find out whether women had any rights in your area of the planet, and to not see women discriminated against.
So keep your burquah on! :)
Regards,
Roopak

Thank you Noreen. Yes, freedom is freedom and should be for all.
My take on any religion or ideology is that bogus and phobia are their thing; that freedom and equal rights are not.
It is disturbing that in 2013 religious leaders still have the law at their side, when feeding bogus to their followers, who don't think twice and believe and feast on the lies.
To me, believing in a non-existing allmighty being or following an ideology is a disgrace to the human mind.

Roopak. Of course women are allowed to enter a mosque.
I am always surprised by talks on tv where people talk about the good sides of a religion with phrases like: oh, but women are allowed to.... women can do....
Phrases like that are in itself proof of discrimination against women.
Where I live, women and men have there own sides in mosque or sinagoge